SF Man Accused Of Posing As Contractor, Not Paying Workers

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A man accused of posing as a licensed contractor and bilking a homeowner and day laborers out of thousands of dollars was arraigned on multiple felony counts Monday morning, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said.

Danny Ho, 52, was arrested last week and charged with four counts of grand theft, a count of misappropriation of construction funds, and a count of fraudulent use of another contractor’s license number, among other charges, prosecutors said.

Gascon, speaking at a news conference at the San Francisco Hall of Justice Monday, said Ho entered into a contract in February 2010 with a homeowner to remodel a home at 171 Lee Ave. in the city’s Ingleside neighborhood.

Ho gave the homeowner a business card with the license number and business name of another contractor who happened to have the same name, Gascon said.

After being paid about $32,000 by the homeowner, Ho allegedly abandoned the project and failed to pay wages to the three day laborers he had hired for the job, Gascon said.

Ho “represents the worst of the worst when it comes to unlicensed contractors,” said Rick Lopes of the California Contractor State License Board. “He’s not somebody out there to make a buck, his goal is to rip off people.”

The case was brought to the attention of the district attorney’s office by the nonprofit legal organization La Raza Centro Legal, which received the complaints from the day laborers, Gascon said.

The licensing board had also received a complaint about Ho’s work on the project and is familiar with him from similar previous incidents, according to Lopes.

Ho has previously served time in prison for another contractor fraud case and has been cited by the board on at least six occasions for various offenses, Lopes said.

He said the board encourages homeowners to check the licenses of contractors and to know the pertinent laws, particularly concerning down payments on projects.

According to the Contractors State License Board, a down payment before work starts can not be more than $1,000, or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less, excluding finance charges.

Along with the more than $30,000 the victim paid in this case, repairs to the work already done will now cost an additional $95,000, Lopes said.